Pedro Szekely understands dark matter in an all-too-human, not cosmological, universe. Beginning in 2015, his work with Craig Knoblock on sophisticated, cloud-based analytics has generated substantial media attention for its ability to expose human trafficking hidden deeply online. The system essentially uses open-source software to transform hard-to-search data into concrete law enforcement leads.
Szekely recently gave a seminar describing how cloud-based Domain-Specific Insight Graphs (DIGs) plumb the dark and open web. That vast counterpart to the conventional, surface web is a favorite destination for human traffickers, gun runners and other illegal operatives. Part of ISI's continuing "What's Going On" series that deepens researchers' knowledge of work being conducted Institute-wide, the talk was attended by about 30 ISIers in Marina del Rey, California and Arlington, Virginia.
Szekely began with the mandate issued by his DARPA project manager: Search millions of web pages, all in different formats, for names, phone numbers and any other relevant information of specific people who had little other identifying information. The task is part of Memex, a DARPA browser created to help law enforcement uncover patterns and relationship in previously unsearchable criminal data. His project manager, says Szekely, "poses these crazy challenges and people actually figure out how to do something useful."Read More
Unless otherwise noted, seminars are open to the public.
Quantitative Methods to Learn, Detect, and Track Processes
11:00am - 12:00pm PDTBranching process models for information transmission and centrality
11:00am - 12:00pm PDTPedro Szekely understands dark matter in an all-too-human, not cosmological, universe. Beginning in 2015, his work with Craig Knoblock on sophisticated, cloud-based analytics has generated substantial media attention for its ability to expose human trafficking hidden deeply online. The system essentially uses open-source software to transform hard-to-search data into concrete law enforcement leads.
Szekely recently gave a seminar describing how cloud-based Domain-Specific Insight Graphs (DIGs) plumb the dark and open web. That vast counterpart to the conventional, surface web is a favorite destination for human traffickers, gun runners and other illegal operatives. Part of ISI's continuing "What's Going On" series that deepens researchers' knowledge of work being conducted Institute-wide, the talk was attended by about 30 ISIers in Marina del Rey, California and Arlington, Virginia.
Szekely began with the mandate issued by his DARPA project manager: Search millions of web pages, all in different formats, for names, phone numbers and any other relevant information of specific people who had little other identifying information. The task is part of Memex, a DARPA browser created to help law enforcement uncover patterns and relationship in previously unsearchable criminal data. His project manager, says Szekely, "poses these crazy challenges and people actually figure out how to do something useful."Read More
